BOOK: Relational Masks (2004)

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Relational MasksYear: 2004Author: Russell WillinghamLength: 192 pages Relationships are hard. Sure, once you have communication down, they become easier. However, there are subconscious traumas from our developmental years that will affect how we interact with others for the rest of our lives. These are the things that impede us honestly and intimately communicating with others to build those relationships. While not necessarily a guide on how to fix these traumas, Relational Masks does a great job of identifying the core beliefs that influence how we put barriers between others and our vulnerable selves. While I understand that many of these “categorization” philosophies (like Meyers-Briggs, 5 Love Languages, etc.) aren’t great at identifying growth areas, I appreciate how they can be something to point to for self-identification. Relational Masks certainly has a categorical set of coping techniques to keep ourselves at arm’s length from those we hold close. Each of these “masks” is a bit of a spectrum of how strongly it affects...
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MOVIE: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3Year: 2024Rating: PGLength: 110 minutes / 1.83 hours One thing that initially struck me about the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movies was how much lore could be extracted from the video games (especially the 16-bit ones). With Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) being a bit of an origin story movie for Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and Robotnik (Jim Carrey), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) easily added two iconic characters from the second and third games in the series. Then there’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024). The lore is at its deepest in this chapter and was a logical next step in Sonic’s story. When Sonic made the jump from 2-D platformer to 3-D space, there was a bit of a learning curve for the series. While I’ll probably have to write another review of Sonic Adventure 2, that this movie made a mostly clean adaptation of this game’s plot is a big positive. With the introduction of Shadow (Keanu Reeves)—the series’...
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